Troubleshooting Windows shares (samba)

On your Windows machines, use DHCP

This may sound weird, but it solves quite a bit of issues. If you wish to have static addresses, 1 way of doing it is if your router supports static DHCP. This way your PCs/devices will get assigned always the same IP on every dhcp request

Check your file permissions on the samba share

Using shell access, go to the directory that's shared, and list its permissions

Add discussion about which file perms are recommended and how to change them.

4. In Windows Explorer, doubleclick on Network Neighborhood, then on Entire Network, then on your workgroup (MSHOME in the case), and see if you see your LinkStation
5. Doubleclick the icon to see the share directory.
6. Navigate to the share directory.